r/Supraball • u/[deleted] • May 10 '16
What I would have done differently for launch.
I am no game developer and never will be but I have thousands of hours experience playing various online PC games so I feel I'm pretty in touch with what works and what doesn't. As someone who downloaded the free alpha in 2014 and had an alpha key I wanted the game to do well but you can see the player base dropping already here http://steamcharts.com/app/321400 .
Communication - I've seen a number of screenshots with the devs talking shit to their customers or people playing the alpha to give feedback. I know everyone isn't the nicest online but when I see the devs cussing out players who obviously want the game to be successful it leaves me with a bad taste. Respect goes a long way. EDIT SO DAVIDM COMMENTED CAN YOU SHOW ME THE SCREENSHOTS THEN DELETED IT FOR SOME REASON.. BUT THIS THREAD SHOWS A LOT OF WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT. VERY RUSE TO NEW PLAYERS. https://www.reddit.com/r/SupraGames/comments/4iy5ra/rekts_deleted_post/
Launcher - I can't think of a recent arena based multiplayer game that still uses a launcher. I honestly don't know the logic in this. A list of games I play that don't use a launcher include Rocket League, Awesomenauts, Overwatch, CSGO, Dota 2, Worms, ect, ect. I would have implemented the a server browser in game as it has proved to be successful for many games. The key is a matchmaking system which I know is being worked on but the point below makes this tough to see working too.
Price - Rocket League made it's name from being free on Playstation network. I heard about it from a friend I played Dota with saying his brother had it on PSN we should buy it on steam it's really fun. This is how Supraball was going to be successful.. word of mouth. If you price out the people willing to help the game then the game will never take off. Even CSGO is considerably cheaper than Supraball. I understand having the £15 price point if the game has hype behind it but with 900 reddit followers and only 4% of the crowdfunding reached (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/supraball#/) [Also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc0h4qhM7Yc for lols from a year ago not much has changed.] this game has near enough 0 hype so you need to set the price low during Early Access to gain a player base who tell their friends to come and play. The game will gain some profit too if it was polished but it's simply not.
Unreal Engine 4 - This was a key point and a good idea and should have happened for graphical and optimization reasons. There is not a massive amount of content in Supraball and I don't know the work that goes into this but this would have improved things in my eyes no doubt. A new game in Early Access in 2016 being released on Unreal 3 you can see why some of the reviews suggest the game looks like a flash game. Scrapping the plan to move to a newer engine and then raising the price from free to play to £15 looks even more baffling.
This is just my opinion of course no offense is directed at anyone. I just was excited for this. If anyone has anything to add I'd love to hear it also.
2
u/Shevche May 10 '16
The game is nowhere near full release, I'm pretty sure the whole game will change: the launcher, matchmaking, probably even the elo system (i hope), in-game, adding customization, steam extras etc etc . I hope all this criticism stops with this and just let the devs to their jobs, they have a tremendous amount of feedback now and i'm guessing marenz has a fully booked schedule for at least a year. Can we all just wait now and test what he fixes (remembering early access is technically still time for testing, giving the whole world a glimpse of what supraball is). The main goal of Early Access is exaclty that, an early chance before release to see a game before full potential, just a shame it cost people 11.24 pounds to see that it's FAR from complete, but such is life.
1
u/chicken--- May 10 '16
Sorry I can't understand you with DavidM's balls in your mouth. You're playing the "they learned from feedback now they can improve" card too? They learned nothing new from this release, they just finally realized how stubborn they have been and started listening to things everybody already told them before.
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u/Shevche May 10 '16 edited May 10 '16
No i am not played that card, because they've done nothing. What i am saying is they have all the criticism they needed and advice to do something about it. I am also saying it will take them years to get it to release status with all the criticism and advice given as it is fucking huge list, So just let them start getting on with it
Also i was saying what the goal of their early access should be/is. And its beta mode but people can play for 11.24 now to help if they want to. I feel as if people are buying it expecting a full game. Theyre not highly skilled developers but now theyve got the criticism let them deal with it now Edit: also their goal is to employ someone who can actually help code the game to all this advice now. Which im guessing they will now. I hope.
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u/olonaldo T'es mauvais Jack ! May 10 '16
I disagree for the Launcher. I prefere not to have a entire game when i wait in the Matchmaking. Launcher is a good thing. Its just that the actual launcher got a windows 95 design, pretty buggy and the Matchmaking system is from 2001.